Herb: Blue-Leaved Wattle


Latin name: Acacia saligna


Synonyms: Acacia cyanophylla


Family: Leguminosae



Edible parts of Blue-Leaved Wattle:

Flowers - cooked. Rich in pollen, they are often used in fritters. The damaged bark exudes copious amounts of a very acidic gum that seems to show promise for use in pickles and other acidic foodstuffs.

Description of the plant:



Plant:
Evergreen
Shrub

Height:
6 m
(20 feet)

Flowering:
February
to May

Habitat of the herb:

Sandy, coastal plains, but also in swampy sites and riverbanks to small, rocky hills (often granitic), on poor acid or calcareous sands, under the most dry and adverse soil conditions.

Other uses of Blue-Leaved Wattle:

A yellow dye is obtained from the flowers. A green dye is obtained from the seed pods. On a 10% moisture basis, the bark contains 21.5% tannin. A fast growing plant, it is used for reclaiming eroded hillsides and wastelands and for stabilizing drift sands as well as for fuel. This is one of the best woody species for binding moving sand. It is useful for windbreaks, amenity plantings, beautification projects, and roadside stabilization in semiarid regions. Plants are heavily armed with thorns and make a good screen or hedge in warm temperate areas.

Propagation of the herb:

Seed - best sown as soon as it is ripe in a sunny position in a warm greenhouse. Stored seed should be scarified, pre-soaked for 12 hours in warm water and then sown in a warm greenhouse in March. The seed germinates in 3 - 4 weeks at 25°C. As soon as the seedlings are large enough to handle, prick them out into individual pots and grow them on in a sunny position in the greenhouse for their first winter. Plant them out in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts, and consider giving them some protection from the cold for their first winter outdoors. Cuttings of half-ripe wood with a heel, July/August in individual pots in a frame. Overwinter in a greenhouse for the first winter and plant out in their permanent positions in late spring or early summer. Fair percentage.

Cultivation of Blue-Leaved Wattle:

Sandy, coastal plains, but also in swampy sites and riverbanks to small, rocky hills (often granitic), on poor acid or calcareous sands, under the most dry and adverse soil conditions.

Medicinal use of the herb:

None known

Known hazards of Acacia saligna:

None known

Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future.